Nature and effects
Learning paths through this topic
Wind-Rigged Tree
Trees that move like trees: the trunk sways, the crown follows and twigs tremble. The game works out the movement as it runs, so it needs no ready-made animation, and the tree stays small enough for that.
Smooth noise
Random numbers that change gently from place to place instead of jumping. It is the base of natural-looking hills, clouds, caves and wandering movement.
Particle burst
A quick spray of sparks, dust, coins or smoke. Every particle gets its own speed, life and spin, slows down in the air and falls with gravity, and a burst is always well filled.
Day and night colors
A sky and light that change through the day, with soft colours at dawn and dusk, plus a clock to drive them. Colours are mixed the way the eye sees them, so sunset glows instead of turning grey.
Weather System
Weather gives a world a mood and a rhythm. It changes how the world looks and sounds, and it can change play: rain slows a fire, a storm closes a pass, a clear sky is a good time to travel.
Let idle-aquarium fish swim around and turn smoothly before the glass
Fish in a cozy tank should wander lazily. The simple ways to keep them inside either make them bounce off the glass like balls, snap around in one frame, or vanish through the side. Here is how to make them notice the wall early and curve away like they meant it.
Let a bee fly to a flower and start hovering without a jolt
A bee wiggling at a flower is easy. A bee that wiggles all the way, or one that suddenly starts wiggling when it arrives with a visible jump, is not. Here is how to blend the hover into the flight so the bee flies straight, slows down, and settles into its little dance with no seam.
Let the forest go quiet one animal at a time as something dangerous nears
The loudest horror in a forest is the moment the birds stop. It works only if the quiet arrives in a believable order and then lingers after the danger has gone, otherwise the sound just follows a distance meter. Here is how to give each animal its own nerve and its own time to calm down.
Make resting birds fly off when touched and settle back one by one
Birds on a branch in the corner of a puzzle screen make it feel alive, and a tap near them should startle them. If they all leave in the same frame they look like a sticker peeling off; if they come back by teleporting, the magic is gone. Here is a schedule that spreads the reaction and the return.
Make a boat or float ride the waves and tilt with the slope
A float that only moves up and down looks glued to the water, and one that follows the wave height at a single point never tilts. Here is how to build a rolling sea from a few waves and make a boat follow both the height and the slope at its own length.
Play a creak of an old tree only at the far end of a big sway
Sound that follows the wind makes a dead forest feel alive, but a creak on every wiggle becomes a machine gun, and one on a timer has nothing to do with what the player sees. The creak belongs to a moment in the motion. Here is how to find that moment from the animation and keep it from stuttering.
Make bubbles rise at their own speed, wobble and merge into bigger ones
Bubbles that all rise at the same speed with the same wiggle look like a pattern, not like water. Big and small bubbles behave differently, and when two touch they should become one without the screen suddenly gaining or losing bubble material. Here is how size drives the motion and the merge.